TUXEDO — Tuxedo School District has been awarded a$6,000 grant by the Gene Haas Foundation.

The grant will support scholarships and National Institute for Machining Skills (NIMS) credentialing for students interested in STEM-based opportunities and manufacturing programs. This credential assists candidates for employment opportunities and/or college acceptances in that they have met standards related to Computer Numerically Controlled Manufacturing.

The scholarships will be given to students currently enrolled in or willing to enroll in a machining-based training and/or engineering program at the postsecondary level.

Students at the George F. Baker High School were presented the check by Kathy Looman, administrator of the Gene Haas Foundation, and Marty McGill, vice president of Allendale Machinery Systems.

About the Gene Haas FoundationGene Haas founded his foundation in 1999. Growing up with a strong social conscience instilled by his family, Haas initially formed the foundation to fund the needs of the local community.

Haas is the owner Haas Automation, Inc., America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools, which he started in 1983. Haas Automation is a now a billion dollar company and this extraordinary growth has all come in an era when Americans were being told that the United States doesn’t manufacture anything anymore.

The foundation's web site cites a recent report, “The Skills Gap in U.S. Manufacturing 2015 and Beyond,” that projects that “over the next decade, nearly three and a half million manufacturing jobs will likely need to be filled and the skills gap is expected to result in 2 million of those jobs going unfilled.”

The foundation's web site also offered this: "Haas' commitment to the importance of U.S. manufacturing has incited him to grow his personal foundation and direct his foundation board to focus on manufacturing education in the form of scholarships for CNC machinist training.